The Tribulations of a Child of the Internet
My computer recently crashed and as I was restoring my files, I came across an article I wrote for Les Echos, a French financial paper similar to the Financial Times, in March 2001. I felt compelled to reproduce it now as the tone clearly captures the aspirations, ethos and dreams many of us had during the bubble and the lessons we learned or chose not to learn as we continue to dream about changing the world.
Apologies for the article being in French.
© Les Echos n° 18360 du 12/03/2001 p. 123
LE POINT DE VUE DE
Fabrice Grinda, fondateur d’Aucland
Les tribulations d’un enfant de l’Internet
Il arrive de passer sa vie sans jamais être au bon endroit, au bon moment, avec les bonnes compétences pour être en mesure de profiter d’une opportunité extraordinaire qui se présente à nous. Une partie de ma génération, la génération Y (pour Yahoo!), représentée par les personnes âgées de 20 à 35 ans, vient d’avoir cette opportunité.
Nous sommes les enfants de l’informatique. Nous avons donc été les mieux placés pour créer ou participer à la révolution Internet. Nous étions suffisamment jeunes pour prendre le risque de devenir entrepreneurs, et suffisamment âgés pour en avoir les moyens. Nous avons bénéficié d’un accès au capital sans précédent dans l’histoire récente des marchés financiers. La bulle spéculative que nous avons connue est une réminiscence des bulles spéculatives sur les tulipes en Hollande au XVIIe siècle ou de celles qui ont suivi l’introduction du télégraphe et de la radio aux Etats-Unis aux XIXe et XXe siècles. En explosant, ces bulles ont détruit de la valeur pour leurs financiers mais ont créé des nouveaux pans entiers de l’économie. Leur excès et leur rareté marquent les esprits. La bulle spéculative que nous venons de connaître n’est pas prête de se répéter, du moins sur des métiers que nous maîtrisons (quelqu’un connaît-il une formation accélérée en biotechnologie ?).
Nous nous sommes donc lancés dans Internet par opportunisme, par goût d’entreprendre, et par volonté de créer ou de participer à une révolution industrielle. Quelques-uns d’entre nous ont eu la chance de s’enrichir matériellement. La plupart se sont uniquement enrichis intellectuellement. Malgré les excès décriés de l’opportunisme, nous aurions été stupides de ne pas profiter de cette révolution pour tenter de nous enrichir. Plus jamais l’opportunité de gagner autant d’argent aussi vite ne se présentera à nous.
Mon expérience personnelle est symptomatique. Pris dans l’euphorie du moment et dans mes rêves de conquête de l’Europe, j’ai malheureusement manqué de bon sens. J’ai choisi de créer ma société Internet pour plusieurs raisons. Après deux ans chez McKinsey où j’avais énormément appris, j’étais sûr de ne pas avoir pour vocation d’écrire la présentation Powerpoint parfaite. Ayant été entrepreneur parallèlement à mes études, l’indépendance et la gratification d’avoir un impact sur le devenir de l’entreprise, de la voir grandir et d’influencer son destin me manquaient. Certains de mes amis avaient déjà réussi sur Internet aux Etats Unis, et j’avais l’impression de passer à côté d’une opportunité unique. Finalement, à vingt-trois ans, j’ai considéré que je n’avais rien à perdre. Au pire, j’allais apprendre quelque chose. Si je ne prenais pas le risque de devenir entrepreneur aujourd’hui, je ne le deviendrais peut-être jamais. Je ne voulais pas attendre d’être marié avec des enfants pour dire un jour à ma femme : « Aujourd’hui j’ai quitté mon emploi, vendu l’appartement, et pendant les trois prochaines années je vais travailler 80 heures par semaine pour une société qui a 95 % de chances de faire faillite. »
J’ai donc quitté McKinsey pour créer Aucland en juillet 1998. J’ai commis plusieurs erreurs. Nous avons lancé le site en avril 1999, après nos concurrents. La première erreur a été de croire que nous devions développer notre propre logiciel, techniquement supérieur à ceux de nos concurrents, pour maîtriser notre montée en puissance et démontrer aux capital-risqueurs notre capacité à exécuter un projet. Nous aurions dû acheter un logiciel pour nous lancer rapidement, et développer notre logiciel en parallèle. Malgré cela, nous nous sommes établis rapidement comme un des acteurs principaux du marché français car nous étions mieux structurés et avions pensé plus grand que la plupart de nos concurrents.
C’est en juin 1999 que j’ai commis ma plus grosse erreur. Quatre mois après notre lancement, onze mois après la création de la société, s’est présenté l’opportunité de la vendre pour près de 100 millions de francs. Je détenais 75 % de la société qui avait 20 employés, 20.000 clients et pas de chiffre d’affaires. J’ai refusé parce que je pensais que l’acquéreur ne nous donnerait pas les moyens de gagner face à QXL et iBazar, qui avaient levé des sommes considérables. Si j’avais eu un tant soit peu de bon sens, je n’aurais jamais refusé ce genre de proposition pour quatre ans de travail (j’aurais eu une obligation de trois ans de travail chez l’acquéreur). Nos concurrents étaient bien armés, ce qui rendait risquée l’opportunité de continuer tout seul sur un marché qui est par nature monopolistique. Par orgueil et mégalomanie, j’ai préféré prendre le risque de partir à la conquête de l’Europe plutôt que de prendre en considération le caractère éphémère des conditions dans lesquelles je me trouvais…
Depuis, j’ai énormément appris. J’espère, bien sûr, être un jour de nouveau dans une situation similaire pour ne pas faire les mêmes erreurs. Au moins, cette bulle spéculative a créé une génération d’entrepreneurs en Europe. Ayant goûté aux joies de l’entreprenariat, certains d’entre nous n’en reviendront pas. Nous sommes inemployables, incapables de travailler dans des sociétés bureaucratiques avec de nombreux jeux politiques. Nous serons les précurseurs des changements et nous créerons la société économique de demain. Cela nous prendra juste plus de temps et sera moins lucratif que prévu. Ce n’est pas très grave, ayant gardé une pointe de mégalomanie, nous pouvons encore rêver de changer le monde !
I’m not sure if this will help anyone or not 🙂
THE POINT OF VIEW OF
Fabrice Grinda, founder d’Aucland
The tribulations d’un child of l’Internet
It sometimes happens to pass its life without never being at the good place, at the good moment, with good competences to be in measurement to profit d’une extraordinary opportunity which is presented at us. A part of my generation, the generation Y (for Yahoo!), represented by the old people from 20 to 35 years, comes to d’avoir this opportunity.
We are the children of l?informatic. We thus were placed best to create or take part in revolution Internet. We were sufficiently young to take the risk to become contractors, and sufficiently old to have the means of them. We profited d’un access to the capital without precedent in l’histoire recent from the financial markets. The speculative bubble that we knew is a reminiscence of the speculative bubbles on the tulips in Holland at the XVIIe century or of those which followed l’introduction of the telegraph and the radio to the United States to XIXe and XXe centuries. While exploding, these bubbles destroyed value for their financial but created new whole sides of l?economy. Their excess and their scarcity mark the spirits. The speculative bubble that we have just known n’est not lends to be repeated, at least on trades which we control (quelqu’un knows it a training intensive in biotechnology?).
We thus launched out in Internet by opportunism, taste d’entreprendre, and will to create or take part in an industrial revolution. Some d’entre had us the chance to s’enrichir materially. The majority only grew rich intellectually. In spite of décriés excesses of l?opportunism, we would have been stupid not to benefit from this revolution to try to enrich us. L?opportunity to gain never again as much d’argent also quickly will not arise at us.
My personal experiment is symptomatic. Taken in l’euphorie of the moment and my dreams of conquest of l’Europe, j’ai unfortunately lacked good direction. Selected J’ai to create my company Internet for several reasons. After two years at McKinsey where j’avais enormously learned, j’étais sure not to have for vocation d’écrire the perfect Powerpoint presentation. Having been a contractor parallel to my studies, l’indépendance and the gratification to d’avoir an impact on becoming it of l’entreprise, to see it growing and d’influencer I missed its destiny. Some of my friends had already succeeded on Internet in the United States, and j’avais l’impression to pass to side d’une single opportunity. Finally, at twenty-three years, j’ai considered that I n’avais anything to lose. In the worst case, j’allais to learn something. If I did not take the risk to become contractor aujourd’hui, I would perhaps never become it. I did not want to await d’être married with children to say one day to my wife: ” Aujourd’hui j’ai left my employment, sold l’appartement, and during the three next years I will work 80 hours per week for a company which has 95 % of chances to go bankrupt. ”
J’ai thus left McKinsey to create Aucland in July 1998. Made J’ai several errors. We launched the site in April 1999, after our competitors. The first error was to believe that we must develop our own software, technically higher than those of our competitors, to control our rise to power and to show with the capital-risqueurs our capacity to carry out a project. We should have bought a software to launch us quickly, and to develop our software in parallel. In spite of that, we were established quickly as one of the principal actors of the French market because we were better structured and had thought larger than the majority of our competitors.
C’est in June 1999 that made j’ai my larger error. Four months after our launching, eleven months after the creation of the company, s’est presented l?opportunity to sell it for nearly 100 million franks. I held 75 % of the company which had 20 employees, 20.000 customers and not of figure d’affaires. Refused J’ai because I thought that l?acqueror would not give us the means of gaining vis-a-vis with QXL and iBazar, which had raised considerable sums. If j’avais have so much is little good direction, I n’aurais ever refused this kind of proposal for four years of work (j’aurais have a three years obligation of work at l?acqueror). Our competitors were well armed, which returned risky l?opportunity to continue all alone on a market which is by monopolistic nature. By pride and megalomania, j’ai preferred to take the risk to leave to the conquest l’Europe rather than to take into account the transitory character of the conditions in which I trouvais…
Since, enormously learned j’ai. J’espère, of course, being one day in a similar situation not to make the same errors again. At least, this speculative bubble created a d’entrepreneurs generation in Europe. Having tasted with the joys of l’entreprenariat, some d’entre n’en will not return to us. We are unusable, unable to work in bureaucratic companies with many political plays. We will be the precursors of the changes and we will create the economic company of tomorrow. That will take just more time to us and less lucrative than will be envisaged. This n’est not very serious, having kept a point of megalomania, we can still dream to change the world!
The Babblefish translation is actually a bit better:
The tribulations of a child of the Internet It sometimes happens to pass its life without never being at the good place, at the good moment, with good competences to be in measurement to benefit from an extraordinary opportunity which arises at us. A part of my generation, the generation Y (for Yahoo!), represented by the old people from 20 to 35 years, has just had this opportunity. We are the children of data processing. We thus were placed best to create or take part in revolution Internet. We were sufficiently young to take the risk to become contractors, and sufficiently old to have the means of them. We profited from an access to the capital without precedent in the recent history of the financial markets. The speculative bubble that we knew is a reminiscence of the speculative bubbles on the tulips in Holland at the XVIIe century or of those which followed the introduction of the telegraph and the radio to the United States to XIXe and XXe centuries. While exploding, these bubbles destroyed value for their financial but created new whole sides of the economy. Their excess and their scarcity mark the spirits. The speculative bubble that we have just known is not ready to be repeated, at least on trades which we control (somebody knows it a training intensive in biotechnology?). We thus launched out in Internet by opportunism, taste to undertake, and will to create or take part in an industrial revolution. Some among us had the chance to grow rich materially. The majority only grew rich intellectually. In spite of décriés excesses of opportunism, we would have been stupid not to benefit from this revolution to try to enrich us. Never again the advisability of gaining as much money also quickly will arise at us. My personal experiment is symptomatic. Taken in the euphoria of the moment and my dreams of conquest of Europe, I unfortunately lacked good direction. I chose to create my company Internet for several reasons. After two years at McKinsey where I had enormously learned, I was sure not to have for vocation to write the perfect Powerpoint presentation. Having been a contractor parallel to my studies, and the gratification to have an impact on becoming to it company, to see it growing and to influence its destiny I missed independence. Some of my friends had already succeeded on Internet in the United States, and I had the impression to pass beside a single opportunity. Finally, at twenty-three years, I considered that I did not have anything to lose. In the worst case, I was going to learn something. If I did not take the risk to become contractor today, I would perhaps never become it. I did not want to wait to be married with children to say one day to my wife: “Today I left my employment, sold the apartment, and during the three next years I will work 80 hours per week for a company which has 95 % of chances to go bankrupt” I thus left McKinsey to create Aucland in July 1998. I made several errors. We launched the site in April 1999, after our competitors. The first error was to believe that we must develop our own software, technically higher than those of our competitors, to control our rise to power and to show with the capital-risqueurs our capacity to carry out a project. We should have bought a software to launch us quickly, and to develop our software in parallel. In spite of that, we were established quickly as one of the principal actors of the French market because we were better structured and had thought larger than the majority of our competitors. It is in June 1999 that I made my larger error. Four months after our launching, eleven months after the creation of the company, arised the advisability of selling it for nearly 100 million franks. I held 75 % of the company which had 20 employees, 20.000 customers and not of sales turnover. I refused because I thought that the purchaser would not give us the means of gaining vis-a-vis with QXL and iBazar, which had raised considerable sums. If I had had so much is little good direction, I would never have refused this kind of proposal for four years of work (I would have had a three years obligation of work at the purchaser). Our competitors were well armed, which made risky the advisability of continuing all alone on a market which is by monopolistic nature. By pride and megalomania, I preferred to take the risk to leave to the conquest Europe rather than to take into account the transitory character of the conditions under which I was… Since, I enormously learned. I hope, of course, being one day in a similar situation not to make the same errors again. At least, this speculative bubble created a generation of contractors in Europe. Having tasted to the joys of the entreprenariat, some among us will not return from there. We are unusable, unable to work in bureaucratic companies with many political plays. We will be the precursors of the changes and we will create the economic company of tomorrow. That will take just more time to us and less lucrative than will be envisaged. It is not very serious, having kept a point of megalomania, we can still dream to change the world!
[…] immédiate, celle de Fabrice Grinda, fondateur d’Aucland, dont la lecture de l’article ICI , publié dans Les Echos en mars 2001, est très intéressante sur la psychologie de ceux qui […]